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Saturday, 30 July 2011

You really will have to excuse me this post - it's very indulgent and me centred but I promise it won't be long! It's my birthday today! Not telling how old, but suffice it to say I'm going to start counting backwards now.

I got a laptop as my main present from the hubby today and here I am sitting in the living room typing away on it! I had no idea that's what he brought me. He said that he was getting fed up with me trotting from the dining room (where my craft stuff is) to the extension to use the computer. So here I am with the laptop - swish or what - eh!

Here is a pic of my pressies:

Apart from the laptop I got loads of Promarkers, a mini sewing machine, recipe book, bracelet and chocs! Ah, I also got a copy of a new Octonauts book - that was Emily's present to me!

So I'm going to log off now, hopefully will be back soon with a card or two, but for now it's been a long day and I'm off to bed now!

Friday, 29 July 2011

Well the title says it all really! I was making a couple of cards this morning (have got a few hours peace while hubby and daughter go out to get my birthday pressie for tomorrow) and got so frustrated at moving paper pads around I decided to tidy up a bit. Oh, my, goodness! I am a total paper addict - I've got so much it's untrue! Packs of the stuff stuffed everywhere!

I was thinking of getting craft stuff for my birthday - but if I do it certainly won't be paper! So after a tidy up (read - shuffle!) I managed to get on with a card or two. One of which is actually to be sent to someone, shock horror I'm using one of the cards I make!

Here's one for a couple of challenges:

Detail shot of the glitter glue:

The image is, again, a freebie from a mag (I'm not a huge animal stamp fan - I've got a couple but not loads) coloured with my Promarkers and highlighted with Stickle glue.
Die cut onto nestie. The swirls are a Marianne Creatable die.
All the papers are a Basic Grey pad - Sugared.
Card blank and sentiment - Craftwork Cards
Don't know about the pink die-cut - it was a freebie from Dies to Die For.

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Are you ready for a new a challenge over at Divas by Design? The theme this time is 'Summer is here' and we are sponsored by Di's Digi Downloads for this challenge. There are some gorgeous digi stamps over there, why not pop over and take a look?

So where is it then - Summer? I don't know I thought end of July it would be lovely and hot (same as I remember from my childhood) and look at it - overcast, raining and chilly! What has happened to the seasons? Or is just the golden haze of childhood covering my memories and in reality it was always a bit dull and chilly?

Anyway enough of my meanderings, lets show what you actually came here for - my card:

The image is from Di's - Flower Beary Fairy coloured with my Prisma pencils and die-cut onto nesties.
The paper is Prima Marketing - Annalee pad.
The borders were created with a Fiskars punch and the flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts.
The card blank and sentiment are from Craftwork Cards.

So I hope this and the other fabulous cards that my fellow DT have created have given you some inspiration and I look forward to seeing your wonderful entries.

Monday, 25 July 2011

Well I hope everyone had a good weekend and the weather held out - we were told it would be dull and overcast but it certainly didn't end up being that! OK Sat wasn't too warm not really what you'd expect from the end of July but Sunday was a lovely day.

Got some non-card blurb today, so we will get the card posted first, and if you don't want to read any further that's fine!

So this is my card for a couple of challenges:

Image used is a Leanne Ellis one - Blossom, coloured with my Promarkers. Highlighted with a bit of Stickles glitter and chalked background for definition.
The papers are all Papermania - Honey and Hugs.
The lace border is a Martha Stewart deep edge punch and the doily die was a very kind freebie from Tracey at Dies to Die for with one of my purchases so I'm not sure which die it is exactly.

Saturday afternoon was spent picking a lot of apples off the trees at the bottom of the garden (there are even more waiting to turn ripe, going to be a bumper crop this year).

Then Sunday I made Apple Chutney, another first for me and it seems to have turned out fine. I have to wait a month for the taste test but am hopeful!

It amazes me how these, plus a lot of spices and White Wine Vinegar:

Can turn into these:

I am a late comer to preserving (of the cooking kind - I've been doing the face kind for ages ;-) ) but am so happy in the kitchen chopping, measuring, boiling and bottling. I don't know why I haven't done it before. I shudder to think of the 10 years worth of waste there has been from our apples trees, but I still would've like a couple of eaters in there as well as all these cookers.

This year we are also growing tomatoes for the first time and next year I think I've finally persuaded the other half to let me grow some fruit! So hopefully this time next year I will be picking strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and any other sort of berry we can get to grow in our garden! In the meantime I'm off down the local pick you own soon to get some other ingredients for my jams.

So you have to imagine me in the kitchen in my pinny (oh, yes I wear a pinny) chopping and boiling and being super happy - that's my perfect weekend.

Friday, 22 July 2011

This is my entry for this weeks Less is More challenge - Chrissie / Mandi you are terrible! You make me think! I've been popping on and off the site all week since I saw what this challenge is and all the time I'm thinking "Circles, circles, what on earth do I do for circles"! Especially again as I've seen so many brilliant takes on the theme this week.

So this is what I finally came up with:

It's extremely simple and I'm not even sure I like it, but it's my best shot this week so I'll have to live with it. I drew around a couple of my circular nesties then punched the holes with my Crop-a-dile. mounted it onto pink card, wrapped a bit of ribbon round the panel and mounted that onto my standard square card blank. To finish I stamped a sentiment (£1 bargain). Finished! It's got circles, but I don't think it's got that certain something though.

My other project today was this:

Apple Jelly - it's finished! It set and it must taste good as when hubby helped me bottle it he said it tastes good and he doesn't like fruit, jam or jelly!

It's a bit cloudy, it set much quicker than my Plum jam from last year and caught me by surprise so I didn't get a chance to put the knob of butter in. Taste testing will be soon, and I'll report back then.

Have a good weekend all, more apple picking for me tomorrow or Sunday!

Thursday, 21 July 2011

I thought I'd do this post separate to the card making ones as it's not about card making, well not really!

I said in the last post that all the cards I'd made recently were thank you ones - three of them being for the nursery teachers. I also thought that as Em has been at nursery for two years I should get them a thank you present. I don't actually remember me (or my mum) doing anything like this from when I was at school, but I understand it's the thing to do now.

So, me being arty / crafty, I thought rather than getting them chocs, smellies, flowers, etc I'd try and be a bit creative. After googling (ahh, what did we do before google, eh!) I found that a lot of people had brought ceramic pens and then decorated some item of crockery.

So I duly ordered pens and mugs and got Emily sat down last weekend to draw on them. She thoroughly enjoyed it - I slightly freaked as I was sure she was going to break one, but we got through it!

Here is the end result:

The pictures Emily drew and I don't know if you can make out that she wrote her name as well and I wrote the blurb. Stick 'em in the oven for 90mins and hey presto - decorated mugs!

I hope the nursery teachers like them! There was another one in the pack but the handle broke in the post - Grandad's getting that one!

Last day at nursery for her tomorrow, when we will hand over the cards and mugs, then the summer hols and my baby isn't my baby anymore - she's my big gown up girl heading off to school.

I am getting used to the idea, and will stop being a moany minney and instead celebrate that I have a beautiful, cheerful, intelligent daughter and trust that she really enjoys 'big school'!

This is the last of my little spurt of cards. I decided in the end that I needed to make a thank you card for each of the nursery teachers, I've made all three now and so should go get on with all the housework that I've ignored this week. You could write your name in the amount of cat fur that is lurking on the hallway upstairs, it really needs hoovering. That's my job for the rest of the morning, before heading off to pick Emily up from nursery and then off swimming.

This is my final card and although it is a Lili of the Valley image it's one of my stamps - not a freebie! Once I'd decided to use these images I thought I might just as well do all of the cards with them. I'd totally forgotten what a joy they were to colour and how much I like my Promarkers. Oooh I'm so fickle, moving from one toy (Prismas) onto another (Promarkers).

Anyway cut the waffle Sarah, show the card:

Detail shot of glitter on the headband:

Please excuse the wet glue on the first picture - I am so impatient I can't always wait for things to dry!

Details of card:

Lili of the Valley image coloured with Promarkers and highlighted with Stickles glitter glue, die-cut with my Go-Kreate die.
Lili of the Valley sentiment die-cut with a nestie.
Buttons and ribbon from stash.
Don't know where the stripy paper came from but the dotty one is K&Co, Brenda Walton.

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Me again, I don't know I'm so unpredictable aren't I!? You don't hear from me in a week then I post nearly every day!

This is really a very quick post though as I finally managed to make a card I need plus make it so it fits a couple of challenges:

The card:
Another freebie Lili of the Valley image, coloured with Promarkers and die-cut with a nestie.
Papermania papers from Blueberry Hill paper stack. (Apart from the spotty paper - don't know where that came from, again in a box of papers!)
Ribbon from my ribbon box.
Craftwork cards card blank and sentiment.

So my waffle, the reason this is a very quick post is that you may remember our apple trees are starting to produce apples and I was on the hunt for apple recipes? Well I'll forgive you if you don't remember but I am! Well I found a lovely little site that has a few apple recipes and today we are going to try and make Apple Jelly. Later in the week (or next) it will be Apple Chutney. I'll let you know how we get on - and I say we as Em has said she will help - gulp!

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Well whose a good girl then?! Not quite a post every day, but getting there. Still no cards for challenges though, I think maybe I'm going at this the wrong way round. I should probably make a card with a challenge in mind, rather than making a card and then wondering if it would fit any challenges!

So card for today is another Lili of the Valley one - surprise, surprise! Still working my way through the freebie images.

Here we go:

Detail shot of the flowers in her bouquet:

The details:
Freebie LoTV image, coloured with promarkers. Die cut onto nesties
Marianne Creatables swirl
Main paper is from My Minds Eye - wild asparagus paper pad, the back panel is a K&Co scrap, the front one no idea just from my scraps box.
No idea with the ribbons either - they are just out of my big box
Ditto for flowers!
Sorry not much detail is there!

Now onto my waffle - today was the end of an era for us. Our last ever PEEP group - Peers Early Education Partnership - it's a particular type of children's group that focuses on early learning and our one was run by the local SureStart centre. It was absolutely brilliant, I made many friendships there, and today was the last one that we could go to as Emily is now too old with her being 4 and starting school in Sept - we have been going to the various stage groups since she was 6 months old. There was a lovely little party and they all got certificates - so cute!

The start of the end - so many things we won't be able to go to now that she is starting school. I know there will be a new stage in her life soon which will replace the things we won't go to - but at the moment I am missing my baby!

I will get a grip and get over it, but tonight I am going to wallow in memories.

Sunday, 17 July 2011

Yes, can you believe it a post two nights running! Can't promise the same service for tomorrow, have to get the holiday let ready for this weeks guests and we've got the School sports day.

I brought a copy of Papercrafts Inspirations for the freebie and am using them up rapidly. The gift is a pack of 20 LoTV images - now the paper they are printed on isn't the best, not that smooth, and I'm finding the Promarkers are giving me less work to colour with than the Prismas. At least it's giving my poor neglected Promarkers a new lease of life!

So here is the card, not entered into any challenges (I just can't get my head around trying challenges at the mo when I'm struggling to even get one card done) but probably going to be the Nursery teachers Thank you card:

I'm wondering if maybe part of my problem with getting cards made is that I've just got too many stamps as I'm finding it much easier just to go to this pack of images and pick one. Too much choice leads to a sore head me thinks. No way am I getting rid of any stamps (apart from eventually the ones I very first brought a long time ago) though, I'm slightly addicted. One day I might well post a pic of all the boxes, crates, folders and more boxes that hold all my stamps. I'm also thinking about getting more for my birthday present.

My waffle - Emily is running in the Nursery race at sports day tomorrow. There are going to be two races for the Nursery kids, one for the ones moving up (Emily's group) and another for the little ones staying in Nursery. Em has been practising she tells me! There has been lots of standing still in the classic start pose and then zooming from one end of the kitchen to the other. Wonder what she will do if she looses! Does any child really believe that it's the taking part that matters - I never did and was always devastated when I lost (which was lots, I'm not sporty at all!).

If I get time, I may well post tomorrow with the Thank you presents we made for the Nursery teachers and let you know how the race went, can't promise though.

Saturday, 16 July 2011

Yes I am still here, but I do seem to be having real difficulty getting to update the old blog at the mo. I don't remember the run up to the school holidays being as bad as this last year, but maybe that's because Emily wasn't moving up into big school. I seem to have had a lot of running around looking at uniforms, parents evenings, school fetes, and Monday it's the school sports day.

I did finally manage to make a card yesterday, not for any challenges but for a friend's birthday so I thought I would share it here:

It's a free Lili of the Valley image from a mag, coloured with my Prismas and bit of stickles for highlights. Die-cut onto nesties, ribbon from my big box. The papers are Blonde Moments: Sugar Dumpling, I have had them for years and am getting to the last of them - will have to buy the pack again as I think they are just beautiful. The card blank and sentiment are Craftwork Cards. Flowers and pin from Wild Orchid Crafts.

Now my waffle! Our apple trees are just starting to give us apples and I'm desperately looking for recipes for apples - loads of them went off last year. I don't like pastries so apple pie is not on the menu - or crumble either - yuk! The same happened with the plums, which I why I took the plunge and tried jam making last year, really loved doing it and am planning another batch this year. However, I don't think I've ever seen apple jam, but have seen loads of apple chutneys - maybe I'll branch out and try chutneys this year. Any good recipes anyone?

Will wander now as have dishes to do, hopefully I will be able to get more crafting done soon and update more regularly than once a week! What on earth am I going to do during the school holidays!!!

Sunday, 10 July 2011

Glad to report things are starting to get back to normal here, Emily is fully recovered from the viral infection and back to her normal self. So I got a chance to make a card yesterday evening as she slept soundly through the night for the first time in a week. She got 11 hours, bliss!

My card is for the current Less is More challenge, which I missed last week as I didn't get a chance to craft while Emily was ill. This week Mandi and Chrissie have set the challenge of a One Layer Card featuring something with legs! Well I will no doubt come back to this again and try something more arty - but my first thought was this:

The little girl does actually have legs in the stamp, but I thought it looked quite good with her at the bottom of the card, so I just stamped off the edge.

The stamp is a Kanban one which I coloured in with a mixture of Prisma and WHSmith artist pencils. The greeting is part of another sentiments stamp set.

This is not my original attempt at this card, that one I had coloured in only with Prisma pencils. I don't think you can see from the picture but I've added a touch of 3d gloss to the buttons on the phone and when I did this originally the gloss smeared. So I re-stamped and coloured again, using my WHSmith pencils and that card I ruined by smudging the sentiment. So as not to waste it I put a Craftwork Cards sentiment over the smudge - therefore making it ineligible for this weeks' LiM. So I set about again stamping and colouring again, this time I got the card above.

The difference in the look of the images, using the different pencils, is really interesting. I thought anyway, I might just be being a bit geeky here! I thought I'd pop up the other cards so you can see what I mean.

Just with Prismas:

Everything, apart from the skin tones, with WHSmith Artist pencils:

I must admit I really like the way this one has turned out, but know it can't go into the challenge as it has the 3d greeting on.

So glad to be able to participate in LiM again, really missed it last week and off now to say hello on Mandi and Chrissie's blogs and have a look see at everyone elses entries.

Friday, 8 July 2011

Another huge gap between posts! Things have just been so hectic at home that I'm not getting on at all, I'm not really even making that many cards. I've had to concentrate on producing a dozen thank you cards for the birthday presents that Emily received, and that's all I've done! I've even missed a couple of challenges I would normally take part in.

After feeling that things were back to normal last week, this week Emily goes and catches a viral infection which means a week off nursery so everything grinds to a halt at home.

I have enough trouble looking after just one child andI take my hat of to those of you who juggle family and work and craft - I can only do family at the mo! How on earth do those of you with more than one child cope with the pulling in all directions when one is ill?

Most of the last week Em has been asleep on my lap, then sleeping badly and so we are all having disturbed nights - I feel like the clock has re-wound 3 1/2 years and am as shattered as when she was a tiny baby.

Anyway, she is on the mend (I know that as she was particularly 'challenging' to put it nicely today!) and hopefully craft will resume next week once she is back at nursery. If only she would sleep through as well, I'd get my evenings back also.

So the cardage is pretty slim at the mo and thought, just so you knew I hadn't popped my clogs, that I'd show the Thank you cards I made.

I used a Sugar Nellie, Rachelle Anne Miller stamp - Duck in Boots on an A6 card. To keep it simple I just stamped and coloured, with my Prismas, directly onto the card. Then for interest I varied the colour of the ducks bib, boots and flower. I also stuck a small button into the middle of each flower and that's it really. As simple and easy as possible - although I did personalise grandads' card!

Hope you are all keeping well and major apologies for lack of commenting, third time lucky in saying this, hope all back to normal next week.

Friday, 1 July 2011

I'm back, just! I think I've waffled enough in other posts about our little holiday, daughters birthday and party - so no waffle now just card.

I had a sneaky look at last weeks LiM challenge and, to be honest, I am glad I was away! A monogram on your card - I just wouldn't have been able to work that one out. Well done to those of you who managed it - and with such flair as well.

Still a busy week here, made a cake yesterday which was delivered today for the school fair that my daughter's nursery is attached to and am off there shortly to help put the stalls out. Then will go have a look around after Em comes out of nursery.

So this is just a flyer of a card to join in with the LiMettes - really didn't want to miss two weeks.

So card:

Trying to show the depth on the card:

Struggled slightly with the sketch, until I had this idea. I remember in one of the previous challenges someone had only coloured in a part of the stamp - spot colour I think someone called it? I liked the idea and filed it away under inspiration, here it is being inspiration. The placement of the circles could've been better, but I don't think they make an unusable card.

Details:
The Stamp Barn image, coloured with Primas. The base image was left uncoloured and the coloured image was die cut out with Nesties, then 3d fixers to give a bit of dimension. That's it really.

Sorry Mandi and Chrissie I haven't made it to your blogs this time, I know next week will be better and I'll be back into routine properly.

Best wishes all, I'm hoping the rain holds off here so that we aren't running from stall to stall in the rain!